I am so, so, so, so, so, SO sorry that I've been busy for so long! I am posting this new chapter now and, hopefully, will be able to pick up a more reliable pace. Quick note, events deviate from the game again, but only slightly.

Chapter 2: Grandma is the Big Bad Wolf?!

-Rio's POV-

As we moved through the Mystifying Forest, Meowth and I took note of the diverse types of Pokémon inhabiting this forest and the numerous invisible traps. After only two floors, we had gone through enough trouble for a whole other dungeon. Meowth was muttering under his breath and I only caught snippets of what he was saying.

"Freakin' traps… No type advantages… Ton o' heavy hitters… Oughta rename it the Frustrating Forest…"

We had a brief respite when we managed to locate the Hidden Bazaar, which was a welcome relief since Meowth looked like he was going to Bite someone's head off. We healed up at the Mime Jr. Spa, then moved on. After thirteen floors (Ironic…), we reached a clearing where a medium-sized glade bottlenecked towards a larger area up ahead.

Meowth looked around, "Thirteen floors of traps, enemies and just plain bad luck. Looks like we're at da end, though. And we still-"

A voice called from behind us, "Oh! Meowth! Rio!"

We turned around and Teddiursa and Ursaring walked into the clearing as well.

Meowth grinned, "Hey, guys! You're here too?"

Teddiursa said "yup" before Ursaring continued, "We often come play here. So how's it going? Did you see your grandmaster of all things bad?"

I shook my head, "No. Oddly, we haven't seen anything out of the ordinary."

Ursaring nodded, "See? I told you that you only heard a rumor."

Teddiursa tilted his head, "Why are you two here? Are you in search of that grandmaster?"

Meowth shook his head and said, "Nah. We're lookin' for Luminous Spring."

"Oh, Luminous Spring?" Teddiursa pointed forward, "That's just up ahead here. In fact, we were on our way there. Want to come with us?"

Ursaring nodded, "Yeah, come with us if you want." They walked around us and moved out of the clearing to the area beyond.

Meowth looked at me and tilted his head towards them briefly, "Let's go ahead, Rio. Safety in numbers, an' all dat." I nodded and we both moved forward. After we took a few steps forward, the ground fell away from underneath us. We screamed as we fell into a deep pit.

We landed hard and I rubbed my sore tail while Meowth pulled his face off the ground. I groaned, "That hurt…"

Meowth spat out a clump of dirt, "Maybe it hurt you, but I just got a face-full of nostalgia."

I looked around, seeing that we were in some sort of carved out arena. The only light came from the hole up above us. I growled, "How could we have fallen for such a simple trap?"

Meowth held up one of his paws, pointing with a claw, "Well dis one was well made. Put where we would prob'ly walk, hidden with same-colored grass and-"

Meowth's lecture on the finer points of pitfall traps was cut short as the place started dimming. I looked up and only caught sight of a shadowed figure dropping down as the hole closed completely.

Surrounded by darkness, I heard Meowth say "Weeeellll… this is one for the headlines. There's a big bad wolf after all."

I shook my head and pinched between my eyes, whispering, "Meowth, this is a serious situation. We may not make it out of here alive!" I reached out with my senses, but couldn't detect anything. They must be really good at concealing their emotions.

Suddenly, an evil laugh echoed through the cave. I looked around and saw nothing. "Meowth! I think that we're trapped here… with the grandmaster!"

"Welcome… to the world of darkness. I am the grandmaster of all things bad."

I flinched and moved to my right, closer to Meowth.

Another voice rang out, "Humph! Not only the grandmaster, but more of us besides!" Then a second voice, "A BUNCH of us minions of the grandmaster are here!" The first voice spoke again, "You can't see us in the dark… but you're completely surrounded!"

The grandmaster laughed again, "Coming to our lair is the last mistake you will ever make. You're not walking out of here."

Meowth elbowed me lightly and whispered, "Rio, how many we dealin' wit'?"

"I can't tell. Their emotions aren't strong enough for me to sense."

"Yeah? I can fix dat." I felt a thud next to me, telling me where Meowth's position was before he started blubbering, "Please let us go! We didn't come looking for trouble or ta barge in on ya turf! Please, please, please!"

I was speechless that Meowth was doing this. Wow. Meowth is the absolute last person I'd expect to drop to his knees. Why is he-? My thoughts were cut short as I heard faint chuckles all around and multiple flickers appeared to my emotional senses. Ah… a quick thinker.

I heard Meowth continue to ham it up, "I'm beggin' ya! We just wanna leave with our lives, oh most cruel grandmaster! If ya want, just let me go and keep my partner! All I want is ta live!"

…

Why I ought to…! Okay… Calm down… At least he gave you a brief warning that he was going to pull one of his "strategies"…

Then I felt huge waves of aggressive emotion coming from the opponents around us, giving me their exact positions. Meowth whispered to me, "Can I get a head count?"

I whispered back, "Nine… No, ten; that makes nine minions along with the grandmaster."

"How close are they?"

"About four feet all around us, in a circle."

"Shield your eyes."

I put an arm in front of my eyes and saw glimpses of Meowth's Flash attack, sending streams of light everywhere. I heard screams and groans all around at the sudden light blinding everybody. I allowed my arm to come down slowly in order to allow my eyes to adjust. Light was still coming from Meowth's charm, lighting the place up. Looking around, I couldn't believe the sight. We were surrounded by the other members of the guild, including Wigglytuff.

Only Wigglytuff seemed unaffected by the flash of light. He just blinked once as his pupils dilated and stared at us.

"Uh…"

Meowth's eyebrows arched, "Wigglytuff?!" He turned around in a circle, briefly blinding everybody again with his light, "Everybody else? What da hell is dis?"

Behind us, Bidoof muttered, "Well it sure is mighty easier to see. Was this part of the plan? This is all so new to me."

Chatot slowly lowered his wing, "Arrgh! What a farce…"

I shook my head, not understanding anything, "Uh, Wigglytuff. Can you tell us what's going on?" Everybody in the room turned to him. He paused for a while, looking confused.

"…Who's… Wigglytuff?"

Meowth and I both said "Huh?"

"I am the grandmaster. I know nothing of your so-called Wigglytuff."

What is he going on about? He looks like Wigglytuff.

Chatot stuttered before saying, "Uh… that's right! And we're the grandmaster's minions!"

"Oh my gosh! That is so right! I don't know any Pokémon named Sunflora!"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Uh, yes sirree! We never saw you in our lives, nope nope!"

Next to me, I heard Meowth mutter, "Alright, I'll bite. If dat's how they wanna play it…" He turned to me and whispered, "Rio, whatever happens, we got a fight on our hands. Keep dodging and keep an eye on that minion that looks like Sunflora. When she starts spinning around, throw a Totter Seed at her. Then hit the deck."

I nodded and Wigglytuff , or the grandmaster, said, "Coming to our lair is the last mistake you will ever make. You're not walking out of here. Prepare to face the terror that is the grandmaster of all things bad! YOOM… TAH!"

Unlike all the other times, this time a series of blue rings of energy came at us, distorting the air around them as they passed. Forced to split up, I could feel the energy coming off of them as they passed. One hit from that and we're done. I looked at Meowth for a moment and saw that he had drawn the same conclusion.

The ground suddenly shook underneath us as Dugtrio used Magnitude. I jumped in order to move to a new spot where the ground was smoother. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sunflora trying to hit Meowth with Razor Leaf while he was being chased by Corphish and Bidoof, but he dropped to all fours and dodged through them, causing them to fly past to where Corphish and Bidoof were.

"Ow! Ow! Hey, hey! Watch where you're aiming!"

I suddenly felt the ground start giving underneath me and jumped before Diglett burst from the ground underneath me. Shards of debris hit my legs, but I shrugged it off and kept trying to stay on the move while keeping an eye on Sunflora. My senses suddenly picked up something right behind me and I ducked as Chatot tried to use Wing Attack on the back of my head. As he flew overhead, I pulled out a cluster of Iron Thorns and started throwing them at him.

Unfortunately, he circled, dodging most of them and caught the last one before expertly twirling it in his talon and throwing it back at me. I side-jumped and the thorn harmlessly stuck into the ground. While it remained in my sight, I saw it vibrate slightly before the ground underneath me gave away and Diglett burst up. Temporarily distracted by the Iron Thorn, I got hit, but the embers of a plan started forming.

I got it.

Everytime Diglett burst out of the ground, I dodged and threw an Iron Thorn at him. He always burrowed back under and the thorns stuck in the ground. I continued to dodge Chatot as well and stole a glance at Meowth seeing him jump up and use Loudred as a springboard causing him, along with Sunflora, Bidoof and Corphish, to crash into each other while he readied his claws and went after Chimecho, who had been lingering on the outskirts of the battlefield.

Croagunk had pulled away from Meowth's side of the fight, a few scratches on him. He seemed uninterested in continuing to chase Meowth, so I saw him look at my side.

I dodged Diglett again, ducking Chatot in the air, and threw an Iron Thorn at Diglett only to miss again.

I've gotta finish this fast before Croagunk gets involved too.

I looked around and watched the ground carefully as Diglett had burrowed underneath again. Continuing to dodge Chatot, I saw the Iron Thorns forward and left of me start vibrating and following a pattern to me. I jumped, pretending to dodge Chatot again and landed with my palm on the ground immediately activating Force Palm. As the smoke cleared, Diglett's head stuck out of the bottom of a small crater, now injured. I immediately fired a Reversal before he had time to recover and then ate an Oran Berry to restore my lost energy.

"Rio!"

I immediately turned and saw Sunflora spinning around like Meowth had told me to watch out for. Without another thought, I pulled the Totter Seed out of my bag, confirming its color before throwing it at Sunflora. It hit her on the head and burst into yellow smoke. She suddenly started spinning more erratically and Meowth ducked to the ground before I shortly followed.

"No! You IDIOT!" Loudred shouted, "Call OFF your attack!"

"P-P-PetAL DANce"

Pink petals started flying everywhere and hit all of the other members of the guild except for Meowth and I, since we had ducked. Chatot flew through the petals and in front of Wigglytuff even though he seemed unphased by it.

Wait, Wigglytuff hasn't been fighting at all. Is he planning something? Observing us?

The petals stopped flowing but Sunflora was still teetering on her feet. Corphish, Dugtrio, Chimecho, and Diglett were all knocked out. Loudred, Bidoof, Croagunk and Chatot were still standing, but looked a little worse for wear. Wigglytuff was standing there unharmed, having been guarded by Chatot.

Meowth and I jumped back to the center and stood back-to-back. I was facing Chatot and Wigglytuff and he was facing the others.

I glanced over my shoulder, "Trade you?"

"Thought ya'd never ask. I couldn't stall 'em for much longer."

"I could fight better against them if you put out that light."

"Gimme a boost."

Meowth suddenly jumped and I crouched to the ground, catching his feet and throwing him as he jumped to the airborne Chatot.

Loudred ran forward and tried to run me over, but I stopped him in his tracks and pushed him back. I was about to use Force Palm, but Bidoof surprised me by using Rollout. I did a back flip to dodge it, but when I landed, Loudred was replaced with Croagunk.

As Croagunk leaped forward to engage me, I saw Meowth grab onto Chatot's foot and start climbing to grab at his wings. Croagunk started out with a few basic punches. I blocked a punch with my right hand and a kick with my left. But then I noticed that both of my hands were occupied and Croagunk hit me with a Poison Jab using his remaining hand. I was knocked back and felt the poison in my veins, but I knew that my scarf would filter it out right away.

"Meh-heh-heh. You're out of your league, kid. You didn't really think you could take on all four of us, did you?"

I glanced to my side and saw Chatot landing with an injured wing, trying to Peck Meowth off of him. Meowth jumped off and dove into the ground using Dig. As he burrowed down, the light he was casting rapidly grew dimmer.

I smirked, "Now I do." Then the light was gone completely.

-Meowth's POV-

Better put this out while I'm down here. Wouldn't wanna ruin Rio's plan.

I turned off the Flash and moved through the ground. I listened for Chatot moving around up above. While I was clinging to him, I managed to get off a Slash on his right wing. He won't be flying anytime soon. Since he can't fly to dodge my Dig attack anymore, it gave me an idea while I was moving to him.

Just gotta listen for his footsteps… There!

I reached up, moving through the dirt and rock like water and grabbed Chatot's feet. I heard a surprised yelp before pulling him underground with me. With his wings restricted, I was able to finish him with Fury Swipes. Digging a branching tunnel, I resurfaced and came face-to-face with the "grandmaster". I could tell, even in the dark, that he knew what I did and was pissed about it.

"YOOOM…"

Suddenly, I felt what it was like to stare down the barrel of a gun.

"TAH!"

Thinking fast, I used Substitute and slipped away, leaving a clone to take the hit. I ran off in the dark and quickly tired out cuz of the drop in energy needed to make a clone. As I caught my breath, I heard explosions.

Rio must be busy cleaning up. Helps when you have emotion-style night-vision.

After waiting for it to quiet down, I used my ears to track down Mr. Mouth-Breather.

"Rio."

I heard him yelp then hiss, "Don't sneak up on me!"

"Wigglytuff will find us in the dark. I'm using Flash again."

I lit the place up and Wigglytuff was standing a few feet away.

I hate to cut this off here after such a long wait. But this chapter was winding up so long that it would've probably been over 4000 words before I was done with it. Sorry to have been gone so long, but I am going to try to update ASAP.